Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - House of Glass

Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen

4 reviews

lizkatiereads's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

✨ARC Review✨

I will start off by saying that I wished this packed more of a punch than what it did. By the end of the first chapter, I already had creepy child vibes, and I was hooked. I stayed hooked, and then kind of felt let down by the ending. I predicted the twist, and hoped there would be something more twisty to still happen, to pull back in my interest, but that was not the case.

House Of Glass centers around the death of the family nanny, with Rose Barclay right in the center of things. Rose is a nine year old who doesn’t speak and has a weird fascination with sharp objects. Her parents are divorcing, and she witnessed the death of the nanny. Enter Stella, a lawyer appointed to determine a custody recommendation for Rose, but also uncovers the secrets surrounding the death of the nanny. Everyone is a suspect, even the child…

What’s On The Pages:

-a murdered nanny

-lying to protect the ones you love

-a creepy child

-overprotective parents and a grandparent

-secrets

-a house with no glass

✨Rating✨

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

A special thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this eARC! House Of Glass is out August 8th!

Content Warnings

minimicropup's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

The Energy: Blithe, imploring, heedless

The Scene: 🇺🇸 Washington D.C. and a renovated historic mansion in Maryland.

The POV: We follow a children’s Best Interest Attorney dealing with a whirlwind case involving a nine-year old girl traumatized by her nanny's death and her parents’ impending divorce.

🎬 Tale-Telling: Stella's first-person narrative was present tense so that gave a sense of urgency for the drama, but most of the time it trended more toward melodrama. It sometimes felt like it was trying to do too much with too many storylines.

👥 Characters: Stella dominated the narrative with her self-proclaimed importance and taking the moral high ground. I was craving more depth and less posturing. Despite all the reminders about how she uses her past trauma to excel at her job, she made dangerous decisions not just for herself but for the people she is supposed to be acting in the best interest of, and we didn't really get any exploration of why she was doing that. The peripheral characters were more fleshed out, quirky, and unlikeable in a way that didn’t feel over the top.

🤓 Reader Role: Listener and observer. We get all of Stella's thoughts, justifications, and dilemmas. We rarely know more than the main character so we are sleuthing and discovering things alongside her.

🗺️ Ambiance: The setting of Washington D.C. and the renovated mansion worked well. The ‘off’ vibes in the house were felt from the start.

🔥 Fuel: The mystery around the nanny’s death and psychological suspense with the family was so compelling! But the suspense was undermined by spoon-feeding us the twists. The romance felt tacked on, like a last-minute instant-love addition. By the halfway mark I was irritated with the sub-plot of Stella’s past...I had so little interest in it, especially just as things were ramping up with the assessment.

🚙 Journey: The story started off promising with the eerie undertones of a troubled family. I feel like it needed polishing because most subplots started off interesting but fizzled out awkwardly in the middle of other storylines. The endings felt rushed to conclude and I disliked the action scenes. It did that thing where the ‘big bad’ and potential victim pause to have a deep discussion in the middle of high-stakes pursuit and escape.

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🐺 Growls: Contrived plot points. The YA-like writing style with overt guidance and lack of nuanced character development (on the plus side, this could be a good book for readers transitioning from YA to adult novels).

🐕 Howls: Trying to do too much by having Stella’s history compete with the mystery of the nanny’s death and the family assessment.

🐩 Tail Wags: The core murder mystery and the unsettling "creepy kid" vibes. The psychological elements, Rose, and her family dynamics. The sleuthing and interviews with people who knew the nanny.

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Mood Reading Match-Up:

Melodramatic characters with touches of ‘how far would you go for your family”
Amateur sleuthing and whodunnit foul play or folly mystery
Psychological suspense with shady family secrets
Commentary and light themes about manipulation, lies, child trauma, vulnerabilities of childhood, loneliness, and family secrets.

Content Heads-Up: Loss of a parent (in childhood). Drug abuse and overdose (recall, on page). Infidelity (descriptive, on page). Violence. Child abuse, emotional neglect.

Rep: Bisexual. Heterosexual. Traumatic mutism. White, ambiguous, and Latine/Latino characters.

👀 Format: Advance reader's copy from St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley.

“Reviews are my musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶 refined by my AI bookworm bestie ✨”

Content Warnings

astoriareader's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

SYNOPSIS

Tina, a young nanny, mysteriously died due to a fall out of a window at the Barclays’ home. Tina was the nanny for Rose Barclay. After the trauma of Tina’s death, Rose stopped speaking.
Rose’s parents, Ian & Beth, are in the midst of a nasty divorce and custody battle. Harriet, Ian’s mother, also lives in the home.
Stella is appointed as a GAL by the Court. A guardian ad litem (GAL) is a person appointed by a court to look after and protect the interests of someone who is unable to take care of themselves. Here, she’s appointed to investigate Rose’s situation and report back to the Court.

MY THOUGHTS

I am a big fan of Sarah Pekkanen’s writing, and her latest didn’t disappoint.
This is a solid, unique premise. I was suspicious of everyone, and I was eager to find out what happened to Tina, to learn about Stella’s past, and to figure out what was up with Rose. Pekkanen ties up all these loose ends nicely, and the ending is satisfying.
It is medium, steady pace, and tension builds throughout the book.
I love a story with a dysfunctional family, too.
Unpredictable with good twists.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️unique plot. tense with dysfunctional family. satisfying ending.

Thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book will be published on August 6, 2024.

Content Warnings

onemorepagecrew's review against another edition

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4.0

House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen was a bingeable mystery from one of my auto-read authors; I devoured it in a weekend. If you enjoy a “who did it” mystery with questionable characters, this is a great choice.

This story surrounds a wealthy family in the midst of a divorce when their nanny falls to her death. A court-appointed attorney is assigned to determine the best interest of the nine-year-old child, and which parent should receive custody. When she starts to unpack the dynamics of the family, it feels like anyone could have caused the nanny to fall… including the child.

I’m never disappointed by this author, and I started reading as soon as I got my hands on this book. She has a talent for building characters and helping the reader to see various angles. I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys a page-turning mystery that gives full closure in the ending.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Content warnings: infidelity, death, childhood trauma

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